It is known to utilize telephone call centers to facilitate the receipt, response and routing of incoming telephone calls relating to customer service, retention, and sales. Generally, a customer is in contact with a customer service representative (“CSR”) or call center agent who is responsible for answering the customer's inquiries and/or directing the customer to the appropriate individual, department, information source, or service as required to satisfy the customer's needs. It is also known to utilize a web based system to facilitate requests and inquiries related to customer service.
At the contact center, a customer is in contact with a customer service representative (“CSR”) or CSR agent who is responsible for answering the customer's inquiries and directing the customer to the appropriate individual, department, information source, or service as required to satisfy the customer's needs. At the contact center, the customer may also enter into an automated self-service system such as, for example, an interactive voice response (“IVR”) system. In an IVR system, the customer speaks to the IVR system directly and has the call processed accordingly. It is also well known to provide self-service systems such as an Internet web-based system to transmit inquiries and identify possible solutions.
It is also known to monitor calls between a customer and a call center agent. Accordingly, call centers typically employ individuals responsible for listening to the communication between the customer and the agent. Many companies have in-house call centers to respond to customers complaints and inquiries. In many case, however, it has been found to be cost effective for a company to hire third party telephone call centers to handle such inquiries. As such, the call centers may be located thousands of miles away from the actual sought manufacturer or individual. This often results in use of inconsistent and subjective methods of monitoring, training and evaluating call center agents. These methods also may vary widely from call center to call center.
While monitoring such calls may occur in real time, it is often more efficient and useful to record the call for later review. Information gathered from the calls is typically used to monitor the performance of the call center agents to identify possible training needs. Based on the review and analysis of the communication, a monitor can make suggestions or recommendations to improve the quality of the customer interaction.
Accordingly, there is a need in customer relationship management (“CRM”) for tools useful for breaking down a communication between a-customer and a CSR into objects and segments that may be classified into categories for analysis. It is further desirable to determine from these classified segments (i.e., type of segment) how much aggregate time is spent on “non-business” conversation between a customer and a CSR at the contact center. It is further desirable to determine the “business focused” communication objects and segments in a sales or collections situation, and determine if the communication is related to a negotiation. It is further desirable to determine the strength of the negotiation by the CSR based on the identified negotiation segments.
For most calls received by a contact center, the initial portion of the communication between a customer and the CSR is related to “setup” to determine who the customer is and validating their identity. Accordingly, it is desirable to determine communication objects and segments related to setup to determine the ratio of time related to setup as a function of the entire communication. It is further desirable to determine the amount of time spent by CSRs of a contact center on the setup process for a plurality or substantially all communications.
The present invention is provided to solve the problems discussed above and other problems, and to provide advantages and aspects not provided by prior systems of this type. A full discussion of the features and advantages of the present invention is deferred to the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.